About

$103,307

pledged of $100,000 goal

854

backers

NEWS FLASH: We Won! Out of more than 2500 exhibitors the BBQ Dragon won the BEST NEW GRILL ACCESSORY of the National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. Great work, keep buying and spreading the word. The BBQ Dragon is THE grill tool you need!

UPDATE #1:Great news - our factory says that they can start shipping BBQ Dragons by mid-June! So pledge now and know that we should be able to start shipping BBQ Dragons by mid-June regardless of the dates shown on the individual rewards!

"The BBQ Dragon turns a smoldering pile of charcoal into a hellfire of meat-searing glory in under 10 minutes" - Urbandaddy.com

"BBQ Dragons can heat charcoal to grilling temps in only 10 minutes and improve the performance of a variety of cooking gear" - Dude! I want that...

"Summer is right around the corner and everyone is getting the cobwebs off of the barbecue. The BBQ Dragon is a grill accessory on Kickstarter that lets you easily start a fire whether you want to turn on the grill or simply start a fire on the beach. If you want to be a grill master this summer, you will need one of these on Kickstarter." - The Crowdfund Mafia

What is the BBQ Dragon?

The BBQ Dragon is a fire-starting tool that starts charcoal faster than a chimney without using lighter fluid, controls the heat of grills and smokers, revives smoldering fires, and scares cats off of counters. It works by blowing large amounts of low-velocity, cool air at fires, providing them with more oxygen so they burn hotter and faster. It's cordless, hands-free and portable so you can use it tailgating and camping or at the beach. It works for grills, smokers, fire pits, fireplaces, wood stoves, and more.

Watch the BBQ Dragon start a grill in 10 minutes:

Charcoal vs. Gas:

Everyone agrees that charcoal cooks better; is hotter, imparts better flavor to food, and is more ecologically sustainable than gas. Plus who doesn't love the smell of a charcoal grill on the 4th of July? But, up until now, it's been less convenient to use than gas because it's hard to start and takes a long time. But the BBQ Dragon has changed that. Now, instead of waiting 45 minutes, your grill will be ready in 10 minutes - half the time of a charcoal chimney. It will be hotter than a gas grill, the food will taste better and you don't need lighter fluid. Who wouldn't use charcoal now?

“The BBQ Dragon is working...very, very good! We like it.” - John Henry, John Henry's Food Products

How does it work?

The BBQ Dragon works by providing a large amount of oxygen to a fire. The reason people wave paper plates at fires, and blow on them, is to provide extra oxygen to speed them up. The BBQ Dragon does this for you. Just clip the Dragon on the side of your grill, aim it at the fire and turn it on. You'll see the coals immediately begin glowing and burning much more intensely. And since it's hands-free, you don't need to stand around the hot fire until it's ready for cooking. The BBQ Dragon has a variable speed controller, so you can adopt the air volume perfectly to any situation: High volumes of air for a bonfire or outdoor fire pit, medium levels for fireplaces and wood stoves, and low levels for smokers and smaller fires.

Lights fire pits, fireplaces, and campfires

The BBQ Dragon is battery powered so you can take it anywhere and never have to fuss with extension cords or plugs. The AA batteries are both rechargeable, using a standard micro-USB charger which you probably already have, or replaceable, in case you forget to charge it and need to start a fire.

Micro-USB recharging

The micro-USB port will allow us to make future versions of the BBQ Dragon user-programmable. What will you be able program? Maybe you want to set a timer so the Dragon beeps after 10 minutes, or maybe you want to program it to always start at full volume and then gradually reduce its speed as your fire starts. We think there are many exciting things you will be able to program the Dragon to do, and can't wait to find out how you program yours.

Crazy power and heat for your grill

Where can I use it?

You can use the BBQ Dragon anywhere you want to light a fire. It clips to any type of charcoal grill, but that's just the beginning. Ceramic cookers like the Big Green Egg, or the Primo Grill are some of the most popular new ways to grill, and the BBQ Dragon works perfectly with them. Clip the Dragon on leg of your ceramic smoker, aim it up the vent, and in minutes have the grill hot enough to cook pizza.

Clips to anything

How about tailgating? You don't have much time to get the coals going and plugs are scarce – this is the perfect place to use your BBQ Dragon. Same goes for RVing. Bonfire at the beach or a campfire in the woods? The BBQ Dragon sits on the ground and aims at the fire with the adjustable neck. It attaches to any type of smoker, and totally transforms the smoking experience, providing you with unheard-of control over the temperature of. Coals dying down? Temperature dropping? Just dial up the speed of the BBQ Dragon and your smoker heats up instantly.

BBQ Dragon fires up pizza ovens

Provides amazing heat control on any smoker

Fireplaces and wood stoves are suddenly easy to light, using the BBQ Dragon. Fire pits roar to life - no more constantly stuffing them with newspaper, spraying them with lighter fluid or using chemical starters. This changes everything for people who enjoy fires and outdoor cooking.

Our Design Criteria

1. It must be hands-free. Who wants to stand around a hot fire holding a hairdryer, waiting for the coals to light?

2. It must be battery powered. No extension cords, wires, or hand-cranking. It has to be easy to use at the beach, camping, RVing, and other places where plugs are scarce.

3. It must look great. The product's visual design aesthetic was of utmost importance to us. We knew its performance would be revolutionary and its design had to be too. It had to be stylish and sophisticated to compliment fancy grills and outdoor kitchens, but since it was a tool, the design had to be rugged and durable. We wanted to raise the design quality far above your typical grill fork and spatula.

4. Batteries must be rechargeable and replaceable. It must be rechargeable so you are not constantly throwing away expensive batteries, but if you forget to recharge and need to start a fire, you can just throw in a new set of batteries.

5. It needs to be able to operate for several hours on a single charge and light multiple fires.

6. It should be weatherproof. This tool will sit out by a grill and be exposed to weather.

7. It has to attach to anything and stay cool. This was a big challenge, since there are so many types of charcoal grills, not to mention fireplaces, wood stoves, smokers, and fire pits. But we succeeded in creating a novel clip that not only attaches to all these devices, but also keeps the handle away from the fire - cool and safe.

8. It should be durable, well made, and have the feel of a quality tool that people would be proud to use and show their friends.

The Story

You probably know the story, because you've done it yourself – fanned the grill with a paper plate, gotten down on your knees and blown on the grill to try to speed it up. Squirted extra lighter fluid on an already-lit fire - how dangerous is that? And it still takes too long to get those coals going. This is what we were doing when we came up with the idea for the BBQ Dragon. Sitting out in the back yard, in the drizzling cold rain, holding a hairdryer with an extension cord to try to speed up the coals - and we thought: There has got to be a better way.

It turned out to be easier said than done. Three years later, after twenty prototypes, hundreds of motor, fan, and battery combinations, and dozens of design variations, we finally arrived at the BBQ Dragon you see here: A beautiful combination of mechanical and electronic innovation and visual design excellence that changes the industry it was born into. After using this product, you won't want to start a fire any other way. It's that powerful and life-changing.

Rewards

What have we done so far?

The BBQ Dragon works great! After three years of full-time development, we have a patent pending in the USA and have filed for protection all over the world. We've also hired a manufacturer and paid for all the tooling, which has been built, and used to produce prototypes. We then refined, tested, refined again, and are now ready for full scale production. We have been to our factory to inspect the parts and tools, and to work out final details about how to mass produce BBQ Dragons. We met the owners of the factories and saw the supply chain first hand. We are ready to manufacture as soon as we meet our funding goals.

The prototypes you see here were actually manufactured from our tooling, and we have rigorously tested these samples, because we want to produce a product that lasts a lifetime - a quality tool that's as tough as your grill.

We have also designed packaging and engaged manufacturers for that packaging, as well as organized our shipping and fulfillment companies.

We have tested the market viability, both online and in front of real consumers, and were overwhelmed by the response. Almost everyone who saw the BBQ Dragon wanted to buy one! The market loved our product.

We want you to know that your help is truly appreciated. In exchange for your donations, we want you to be the first to have a BBQ Dragon in your hands and on your grill.

Production Schedule

Our tooling is complete and our factories are ready to start producing BBQ Dragons the moment we are funded. We plan on being able to have the first Dragons ready to ship by summer.

The most beautiful revolution in barbecue

Why We Need Your Help

In order to manufacture the BBQ Dragon at a price that is affordable to the millions of Americans who barbecue and grill, we need to place a large order with our manufacturer. This is a sophisticated and expensive product, with metal tooling, plastic injection-molded parts, motors and fans, advanced printed circuit boards, and expensive batteries, and it's only affordable to consumers if we produce it in large numbers. We've gone the extra mile getting things ready for production, and now we need your help to fund that first order. We'll order as many BBQ Dragons as we can with your support. We know that literally millions of people can use this product, and we want to be able to meet that demand as quickly as possible.

Our Team

We're brothers - Bruce and George Prior - and we're experts in mechanical and electronic innovation and invention. Bruce is a mechanical engineer, George spent two decades building and operating ROVs and UAVs, but most importantly we're grilling and barbecuing fanatics. We love the time spent grilling steaks for family barbecues, we love the challenge of smoking the perfect brisket or ribs, and we truly believe that this invention, the BBQ Dragon, will help bring the great tradition of barbecuing to millions of families around the world.

Our branding and web design expert, Bentley DeVilling, joined us after creating the successful music website, http://TheEargazm.com and also cooks an excellent steak, if you like them rare.

"Great product! Everyone who has a brick oven or a wood-fired oven should start it with the BBQ Dragon, no question. Painless lighting process." - Bill Paschen, Chicago Brick Oven

Risks and challenges

We feel that we have done just about everything we can to reduce our risks and challenges. We have been testing and refining this product for 3 years and are confident that it looks and works great.

As with any product there are risks that come along with mass production. We are working now on a quality control program to ensure that every BBQ Dragon is built to the highest standard and will work well for years to come.

There is also a risk in not bringing this product to market fast enough. We know that this is a revolutionary product, and even though we have done everything to protect ourselves, we are worried about copy cats. The sooner we can bring the product to market the better a chance we have for reducing that risk.

Right now, our biggest challenge is raising the money for that first, large production run.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $95 or more
About $95

The Works! Get it all: A BBQ Dragon from our first production run, the "I Kickstarted the BBQ Dragon" t-shirt, the BBQ Dragon recharger kit, AND the BBQ Dragon bottle opener. Shipping included to the US.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 10,000
About US$ 10,000

BBQ Island Retreat! Get a BBQ Dragon and learn to use it on an all expense paid trip to BBQ Island - a private island in Canada where founders George and Bruce will prepare gourmet barbecue morning, noon, and night.